Poll

Opinion

President Obama has promised to usher in an era of politics that transcends partisan divisions. He has encouraged Congress to focus on cooperation and debate so that we can craft the best solutions to our nation’s challenges. Unfortunately, Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s record does not reflect that bipartisan spirit. While I am hopeful that President Obama will lead Congressional Democrats in a new direction, early indications have not been positive.

January is National Mentoring Month. National Mentoring Month (NMM) is the time each year when our nation officially puts a spotlight on the importance of mentors and the need for every child to have a caring adult in his or her life. When you serve as a mentor, you enrich your own life as much as you do the life of a child. Mentoring leads to new experiences, new connections, new insights, and new satisfactions.

In difficult economic times like these, a community’s elected officials face incredible challenges. Often, they are required to make choices and decisions that they never dreamed they might face when agreeing to offer themselves up for public service. It’s called being a leader and our community is fortunate to have ten such individuals on the Henry County Schools’ Board of Education and the Eminence Independent Schools’ Board of Education.

At the end of the year, just before the start of another legislative session, the General Assembly’s various committees report on the issues they have reviewed since the last legislative session.

Not surprisingly, with 14 joint House and Senate committees, numerous subcommittees and eight others focusing on specific areas of state government, there is a wide ranging amount of information covered.

Back in 1959, a group of church members from the three churches in the Bethlehem community met to discuss the possibility of a joint project. The idea of a living nativity was presented and all enthusiastically agreed. Now 50 years later, this ministry has been portrayed over and over each Christmas season. This would not have been possible if so many dedicated people had not had the faith to keep it going. To all who helped in any way, we say thank you so much for your support and willingness to serve.

On behalf of the officers and employees of PBI Bank, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who contributed to our 16th annual Christmas party at Eastern Elementtary. With your generous contributions, we were able to provide toys, goodie bags, a pizza party and Santa Claus for 77 children who otherwise might not have had the Merry Christmas that every child deserves.

Again, many, many thanks to our wonderful friends and customers who contribute faithfully each year so that these children are blessed. We wish you a very happy new year!

en almost a week old at the time, but from a legislative viewpoint, it didn’t really begin until early last week, when all 100 members of the Kentucky House of Representatives and half of the state Senate were officially sworn into office.

Within a few hours, legislators from both parties in both chambers began meeting to elect their leaders, and by the evening, a new one for the House was chosen: Rep. Greg Stumbo, who officially became House Speaker on Wednesday when he was approved without a dissenting vote.

Thanks to the trust of the people of Kentucky, I’ve received the privilege of another term in the U.S. Senate. That’s an extraordinary gift from the voters, and I’m grateful to have the next six years to serve our Commonwealth and our country.

As a new Congress and a new presidential administration begin, I look for lessons from great Kentuckians who have served our state in public office in the past. One who stands out is Wendell Ford.

When I was growing up in the 1950s on an upstate New York farm, a henhouse full of chickens supplied our family with eggs. Still vivid in my memory are the special mailing cartons my mother used to send farm-fresh eggs 150 miles south to friends near New York City, perhaps because I was always amazed – and still am – that the eggs did not break en route.

This month, Americans will welcome a new Congress and a new President to Washington, D.C. The 111th Congress and President Barack Obama will soon begin working on pragmatic solutions for our nation’s future. Now more than ever, we must collaborate in a bipartisan manner to enact legislation that will have a lasting positive impact on our country and its citizens.

At this time of the year our thoughts turn toward gifts and giving. However, there is no greater gift than the gift of hope. In our community there was someone who lost their job months ago. With no income and no immediate family, they in turn lost their electric, their water and relying on wood for heat, they were down to just seven sticks of firewood.

New Year’s Eve has never meant a huge celebration for my husband and me.

We were married on Dec. 28, and our second daughter was born Dec. 27. Between those occasions and Christmas, we have never been much in the mood to party on New Year’s Eve. Still, for about 20 years when I was younger, I eagerly looked forward to Dec. 31, more than any other holiday.

I’m terrible at keeping resolutions. But then, I imagine that most people are.

Like many people, I’ve made a variety of New Year’s resolutions over the years. They’ve ranged from the standard resolutions to exercise more and lose weight to trying to get the dishes done at the end of each day.

I came close to making it this year — I somewhat silently resolved to exercise more. A couple of weeks later, I took the first step toward that and bought a mini-stair stepping machine.

December may be the mid-point of the school year, but for our public schools, colleges and universities, this particular month happens to be the start of a new era.

First, the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education chose as its new president someone who spent the first half of this decade running the largest higher education system in the country: the State University of New York. Second, the Department of Education’s commissioner announced he would be stepping down soon due to health reasons.

As we gather with friends and family to celebrate the holidays, I hope you will take a moment to reflect upon the joy and blessings in our lives. We are fortunate each day to enjoy the freedom, equality and justice that make the United States the greatest country in the world.

I would like to start off by thanking everyone who attended the annual Christmas in New Castle on Friday, Dec 5. I would like to thank all the parade participants, City of New Castle employees, New Castle Police Department, New Castle Fire Department, Prewitt’s Funeral Home, Henry County Judge Exec Office, New Castle Renaissance Committee, Joe Berry, Homer Druin, Merrie Melodious Dulcimers, Morris Insurance Agency, Kentucky State Police Trooper Chip Perry, My Cottage Web Studio, Froggy 104.9, WHAS TV 11, New Castle Festival Committee members with their help in having anothe

Early this year, Kentucky got a sobering wake-up call when the Pew Center on the States said we had the nation’s fastest-growing prison population in 2007. While most states saw their numbers rise by less than five percent from the previous year, ours went up 12 percent.

I fully understand that the business of journalism relies on sensationalist headlines and scandal. But I’d like to take this small space to remind you of where it is you are trying to do business. Henry County is a (sometimes unfortunately) place where most people know the story long before this paper is printed. For you, it is sometimes difficult to realize your place here, but it was no more apparent than when I read your article concerning Michael Wells on the front page of the Dec. 17 paper.

Well, here we go again…a new year…a fresh start with more good intentions and the pledge to spend more time with the family, begin healthier habits, get organized or begin that “read the Bible in a year program.” Don’t worry, this is not another one of those motivational columns that promises to help you reach all those lofty goals you have set for yourself. This is, however, a column written by your community anti-drug coalition that is dedicated to strengthening the families of Henry County.